1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digest reproduction method and apparatus for summarily reproducing a television broadcast program.
2. Description of the Related Background Art
It is known that there is a digest reproduction method for partially playing a storage medium, on which television broadcast programs were recorded, to understand the entire contents of the programs in a short time without playing back all the recorded areas of the storage medium.
However, in a conventional digest reproduction method, parts to be played back from the recorded areas of the storage medium are selected, for example, in accordance with variations in level of an image signal or an audio signal, and then the selected parts are extracted to output them as a reproduced signal. Accordingly, there is a problem in that it is difficult to reproduce an image corresponding to an appropriate digest of the contents of a television broadcast program in the conventional digest reproduction method.